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You may send it as a plain email (no form is needed) or, if you prefer, as an attachment. If you are including an image with the poem, please be sure it is copyright-free (public domain) or that you have the photographer’s permission to use. Please include your name, city and country where you are located, and email address. If you have questions, feel free to email me at: [email protected]

The great 17th-century Japanese poet Basho wrote, “Before the light that things give off dies in the heart, it must be expressed.” In this International Year of Light, we look forward to posting your own expression of the “light that things give off”!

--Bob Eklund, AstroPoetry Blog Editor

2018 AstroPoetry Winner - Adult Category

Jun 19

Bob Eklund, AstroPoetry Blog Editor

Congratulations Entrants

First Place

Aditya Vivek Thota, Tamil Nadu, India

Untitled

In my journey through the space wreck spread across a trillion parsecs, I faintly feel your presence as I explore in quiescence, this never ending universe

I foresee a resplendent entity, something of an unknown identity been searching through the eons, in the plasma, in the ions no, not a neutron, not a boson. and I did finally find you at the heart of a dying star, my entangled photon

Second Place

Anushka Raheja, Delhi, India

An ode to Cassini Huygens

You fell into Saturn's gravity a year ago, Twin wings of smoke lingering in your wake. When I think of the signal that once was aglowMy heart and soul overflow with a peculiar ache.

You wandered the cosmos for two decades A vagrant fashioned out of machinery and metal. In the interstellar solitaire, you were the ace of spades There was a thirst for information you seemed to settle.

Your voyage brimmed with revolutionary breakthroughs; Transcending unchartered celestial borders. With the planets, you had an unparalleled rendezvous. For an epoch, you dutifully executed your orders.

As you uncovered Enceladus's swirling jets, The astronomical community was spellbound. You captured mosaics of Titan's assets, The holy grail of your existence was to astound.

They say your own discoveries led to your demise, Your triumphs paving the way to your destruction. Your nuclear heart was a curse in disguise, To your mission, it was an unforgivable obstruction.

You careened into Saturn's rings, and melted without a trace. In a century, your only relic will be a footnote in history; The paths you once traversed, another orbiter will traipse And your remnants will be eternally encased in rings of mystery.

Your plummet marked the end of an insanely beautiful jaunt, And the beginning of a tale that humanity will tell for generations. Of a hunk of metal which persevered without daunt And managed to be miraculous by exceeding all expectations.

Third Place

Christina Sng, Singapore

Untitled

An eternal dividebetween sea and sky the gravity of existence.

Honorable Mention

Meg Freer, Ontario, Canada

Night, Fugitive

Night’s language has no days, only the sun’s return. Time suspends us.

Standing on the pavilion, I wait for full moon to rise. Super sized, he leaps out of the water bigger than a giant whale. His wife under the sea waves, bids him fare journey and dives, her streaming trail of silver tresses illuminates the ocean. I leave the shore for home, my friend frost moon travels with me.

who says night is quiet

has never stayed at Stella Maris House where the ocean talks to moon and stars, you hear them through the open window

crickets chirp in sea grass waves whisper roll and break as water sieves through sand spume songs calm and lull you

early one morning not whomp nor whisper of surf you wake to unnatural quiet ocean silence shouts

in the inky room you get out of bed walk blind to the window draw back the curtain

mute drizzle sounds on the roof the sea swallows light rain taps a black velvet so deep it stops at the pane